Funny thing is, Wilder came up with his rocking manifesto at the start of his career. It’s just that now, after watching the “last of the full grown men” on stage all these years, it rings clear with a certain gravitas.

Thankfully, this is one band that isn’t showing its age, and will play the soundwaves with a cross-continuum of rock, blues, country and points between and beyond at 3rd & Lindsley this Saturday at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10.

Wilder started out with a version of this current band, The Beatnecks, back in 1985.

His drummer R.S. “Bobby” Field, who would later produce some of Wilder’s most iconic albums, suggested Jimmy Lester as his own replacement, back when Lester was banging the skins for Billy Joe Shaver.

“That’s great I thought, but how do you know he can play rock and roll?” Wilder asked his friend, who reassured him that Lester could play anything.

“He turned out to be a one in a million stylist,” says Wilder of his now long-time drummer, who also helped anchor Los Straitjackets for nine years.

One of Wilder’s greatest achievements came in 2011, when he was inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame, along with legends like Elmore James and Rufus Thomas.

“I was surprised and honored,” said Wilder, joking that he can’t imagine who’s below him on the list.

It took Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney’s band, The Black Keys, 10 long years — much of it either in the recording studio or logging tour miles in a van — to make it to the Grammy Awards for the first time in 2011.

That still wasn’t enough time to prepare either of them for the glitzy experience.

“We felt like when you dress up little kids for church, how uncomfortable they look in the clothes,” Auerbach, the duo’s singer and guitarist, recalls with a laugh. “That’s sort of how we felt on the red carpet.”

As the blues-rock duo returns to the Grammys Sunday as performers and five-time nominees, they’ve had two more years to grow into their new roles — not only as one of the biggest modern rock acts in the world, but also as Nashvillians.

Auerbach and Carney moved to Music City from their hometown of Akron, Ohio, at the end of 2010, just as their sixth album, “Brothers,” was proving to be a breakthrough. The disc earned them three Grammys and was certified platinum, as was the 2011 follow-up, “El Camino,” which is up for album of the year at Sunday’s show.

We tend to celebrate at beginnings, at major anniversaries — the ones with zeros at the end — and at conclusions.

But for music venues, the day-to-day is what’s important, what’s necessary and what ought to be cheered. More specifically, when it’s good, the day-to-day ought to be experienced. Otherwise, we’ll soon celebrate another ending.

Nashville’s 3rd & Lindsley Bar & Grill has been open now for 21 years, under the same management and with the same broad mission: Provide a good vibe and good music for the patrons who walk in the door and pay to hear world-class players.

“When they’re 2 or 3 years old, and they’re used to seeing you on TV or on CD pictures, when they meet you, it can be discombobulating for them,” says Ringenberg, who performs as Farmer Jason on albums, on Nashville Public Television (he’s won an Emmy), on a new children’s video destination (myKaZootv.com) and on international stages. “I like to think that I’m these kids’ favorite eccentric uncle. As I get older, I’ll be their eccentric grandpa.”

And “Bob” is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Regina toured for six years as Dylan’s harmony singer, and she recorded three albums with him. The first song on Our Journey is a radical re-working of Dylan’s classic “Blowin’ in the Wind.”

Apparently, dirt is good. Dylan explained that too many folks are singing on concrete and plastic, that they have lost the essence of singing songs that touch the listener. He said the McCrarys’ “Blowin’ in the Wind” had a foundation, a reality and a soulful spirit.

Regina knew all of that, but sometimes it’s nice to hear such things from Bob Dylan.

When people first bandied about the term "Americana," it was most often thought of as another way to say, "alternative country music." But these days, "Americana" has broadened to include blues, folk and even hard-charging rock 'n' roll.

Wilder helped put Nashville rock to public awareness in the 1980s with his stellar It Came From Nashville album, and he has remained a Music City force ever since. Jones is an acclaimed multi-instrumentalist who has produced albums for Jason & The Scorchers, Josh Rouse and Rotenberry's power pop outfit, The Shazam.

The Americana Music Association is also planning two more "Americana @ The Bluebird Cafe" shows this month: Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer will perform on March 22, and there'll be a Jerry Douglas & Friends concert March 24th. Ticket prices have not yet been announced for the Lynn/Moorer and Douglas shows.

Scott Willis thought for a moment about Government Cheese, the band with whom he spent hundreds of 1980s and ’90s evenings onstage, jumping around and singing rock ’n’ roll songs with names like “Fish Stick Day,” “Mammaw Drives The Bus” and “Camping On Acid.”

“We weren’t the coolest band, believe me,” says Willis, who will perform at the Government Cheese reunion show Saturday night at The Rutledge. “We were a bunch of geeks. But we’d do anything to keep people entertained. Lamp shades on the head or anything else.”

Government Cheese, which included Willis, Tommy Womack, Billy Mack Hill, Joe “Elvis” King and Chris “Viva Las Vegas” Becker, was an outsider outfit. Based in Bowling Green, the band wedged its way into a vibrant Nashville rock scene ruled by Jason and the Scorchers, Webb Wilder, the White Animals, Walk the West, the Royal Court of China and other bands that laid the ground now walked upon by the Kings of Leon, Jack White, The Black Keys and other modern-day Music City rock stalwarts.

The Cheese signed with Nashville indie Reptile Records, garnered some college radio airplay and watched as 1987 single “Face to Face” made its way onto MTV but never found much in the way of mainstream success. When Womack wrote 1995’s Cheese Chronicles, a memoir about his time in the combo, he subtitled it “the true story of a rock ’n’ roll band you’ve never heard of.” Though Womack downplayed the band’s impact and instrumental acumen in his book, a newly issued, two-CD anthology called Government Cheese, 1985-1995 makes a case for the Cheese as an energetic and intriguing, Kentucky-warped composite of the Scorchers’ revved-up rock and R.E.M.’s elliptical pop.

“If you took R.E.M. and the Scorchers and threw them together, you’d almost have the Cheese,” says Bowling Green native Bill Lloyd, who found 1980s chart success with country duo Foster & Lloyd and who remains a prominent Nashville musician and songwriter. “And then they had songs that were funny and engaging, which was a real strength of the band. It wasn’t about stellar musicianship, it was about attitude and about being a band of brothers.”Continue reading →

Garth Brooks never has gotten to make his Chris Gaines movie, but one of his hit songs is starring in a Lifetime television film.

Unanswered Prayers, a movie based on Brooks' hit single of the same name (which Garth wrote with Pat Alger and Larry Bastian), premieres on Lifetime on Monday, Nov. 29 at 8 p.m. Central.

Like the song, Unanswered Prayers explores themes of marriage and of love's second chances. It stars Eric Close, Mädchen Amick, Patty Duke and Samantha Mathis. (You may remember Mathis from her role in The Thing Called Love, a movie that found her performing at the Bluebird Cafe and singing songs to Webb Wilder at the Drake Motel.)

Webb Wilder is among the performers at May 28-30's Jammin at Hippie Jack's 2010 Memorial Day Festival.

Jack Stoddart came to rural Overton County, Tenn. back in the early ’70s and established a homestead where he and his family could connect with the land.

These days the renowned photographer has opened his spread for the Jammin at Hippie Jack's 2010 Memorial Day Festival, a multi-day celebration of several strains of American roots music.

Yes, there’s camping, but Bonnaroo this ain’t — cell phones don’t work here, and the atmosphere is geared toward folks of all ages who like hearing good music in the open air. Among the performers this year are irrepressible roots rocker Webb Wilder, hard-bitten troubadour Malcolm Holcombe and long-lived folk-rockers Goose Creek Symphony.

The festival is May 28-30 at Stoddart’s farm near Livingston, Tenn. For directions, ticket packages and schedules visit www.myhippiejack.com.

The taciturn, dryly humorous Sherrill and the outgoing, riotous Husky have disparate personalities and loosely connected legacies, but each is known for his genre-shaping role in country music’s evolution.

Husky, 84, is a groundbreaking artist whose smash hit “Gone” was at the forefront of the elegant “Nashville Sound.” Sherrill, 73, was a songwriter, executive and producer who built on that sound, helmed landmark recordings including the 1980 George Jones hit “He Stopped Loving Her Today” and had a hand in penning dozens of high-charting country songs.

“I’m just happy to see this happening, finally,” said Jones, sitting next to Sherrill. “He was Mr. Nashville, as far as I’m concerned.”

“That’s the only good thing I’ve ever heard him say about me,” Sherrill grumbled, flashing a quick half-smile at his old friend.Continue reading →